The first reason Billy Long is on the list is because he seems to like Obamacare. Throughout the debates with Scott Eckersley and even after the election in a KY3 interview, Billy Long continued to say there are lots of things about Obamacare he likes, and there are things in Obamacare he will fight to keep. Of course many of these things Billy likes goes against free market conservative principles like regulating the insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions on the federal government's terms as well as covering 'children' up to the age of 26. The last time I looked at the Constitution, these weren't the duties of Congress according to Article One Section Eight. Of course Billy Long thinks no one in Southwest Missouri will notice as long as he continues to say he is 'fed up' and that he was 'tea party before tea party was cool.'
Billy Long is also the first GOPer to make the list for another obvious reason. Like a liberal, Billy Long continues to play the victim card. This first started after it was discovered that Billy Long lays down more money to play in a single poker tournament than Missourians on Social Security make. I broke the story of Billy Long's games of high-stakes poker, and they were met with the same response no matter how many times Billy Long's name appeared on World Poker Tour documents.
Long addressed gambling by denying it and then using his family to divert attention from the issue in October, and the Springfield News-Leader took it as gospel never probing more.
Asked about talk that he gambles, Long wrote in an e-mail: "The truth is less exciting than the rumors. I have played cards and my family and I have been to Las Vegas. I've built a successful small business, raised two beautiful daughters and have been married to the same wonderful woman for over 26 years. It should be obvious that this is not a big part of my life and that it's nothing more to me than a way to relax."
So there you have it, Billy Long plays the victim card known as the Internet rumor. Internet rumor? Why does Billy Long's name appear on so many World Poker Tour and other poker tournament entries if this is an Internet rumor? Did the World Poker Tour and these other lesser tournaments conspire against Congressman-elect Long?
http://thepokerforum.com/spc0915a.htm
http://www.worldpokertour.com/Shared/Players/Bios/B/Billy_Long.aspx
http://www.pokerpages.com/tournament/result22229.htm
http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-players/26866-billy-long/casino/results
If you look around there are other entries that I have posted to support the fact Billy Long isn't as fiscally responsible as he claims to be with his own money, and now Southwest Missouri is gambling on Billy Long going to Washington to be fiscally responsible with our money.
Here's where Billy Long went wrong with the gambling. Rather than tell his American success story that allows him to lay down more than $15,000 just to enter a poker tournament, Billy Long lied to the Southwest Missourians and played the liberal's victimization card. It was pathetic to watch.
Then towards the end of the campaign, a woman named Jennifer Case came forward accusing Billy Long of gambling, getting frisky with strippers, and making off-color racial comments in the back rooms of restaurants in Southwest Missouri. Despite this woman coming forward as well as two other people to back up her story, Billy Long played the Internet rumor victim card again. Well, when you have a woman and two of her co-workers coming forward and talking, that isn't an internet rumor, yet Billy Long was allowed to get away with it.
Conservatives are responsible people. We understand that with freedom comes self responsibility. We take accountability for our actions and we don't play victim cards. If Billy Long was a true conservative, he would have taken accountability for his actions rather than play a victim card. Billy Long's support of key components of the Obamacare healthcare law combined with his use of the victim card makes him worth an honorable mention as the GOP's first entry into BBCW's Wacky Liberal of the Year.
